As they stared down at the row of nearly identical tins, Caitlin began to wonder if they had made a mistake.
These were the things they knew:
These were the things they didn’t know:
“I mean, I’m pretty sure Jenny would be fine with any of these flavors,” said Polly.
Caitlin knew they were right, but they also knew that Jenny’s absolute favorite was red bean, and they wanted to make Jenny as happy as they could. They also did not, under any circumstances, want to concede that Polly was right. “She doesn’t like the egg ones as much. We need to find red bean.”
“What if we get her a pastry to go with it?” Polly gestured towards the refrigerator case, which Caitlin knew contained red bean buns. Which Jenny also liked.
“That’s not the same.”
“Alright, well, we could just buy every mooncake here and one of them has gotta be right.”
Caitlin ignored them and had an idea. They shifted their cane to their left hand and pulled out their phone, scrolling till they found the translation app. They picked the closest tin and focused it in the camera.
Polly leaned over to watch. “I don’t think it recognizes the text,” they observed.
Caitlin had to agree with this one. “Yeah, I guess we just have to guess.”
“What if we buy them all one by one and check until we get the right one? Perform a binary search or something.”
“That is not remotely what that phrase means.”
“Probably wouldn’t work with two they/thems, anyway.”
Caitlin glanced up and down the row again, until their eyes lit upon something they had missed before. “That one has multiple words on it. I bet it’s a variety pack.”
“Okay, so we buy that one and eat all of the ones in it, and then if one of them is red bean we gotta buy all of the individual ones again until we find it.”
Caitlin raised an eyebrow. “How much did you budget for this expedition?”
Polly traced the price tags with their eyes again. “Okay yeah, maybe not. Should we just get the variety pack and hope for the best?”
“Yeah, probably.”
Polly picked up the tin and the two headed to check out. In Polly’s car, Caitlin opened up the lid. Thankfully, there were two of each flavor inside. Unfortunately, this meant that even if they guessed right on the first try, Jenny would only get one of her beloved red bean. Assuming there was even red bean in there.
Polly reached for the top left corner. “Alright, well, let’s check this one out!” They split it in half and offered one to Caitlin.
Caitlin chewed and considered the flavor. It was… sweet and also salty? That was about all they could say about it.
Polly swallowed. “You know. I’m realizing I have no fucking idea what red bean tastes like.”
Caitlin did not want to admit that they had just reached the same horrifying conclusion.